Longmont woman finds hefty gem at Arkansas park

Bobbie Oskarson uncovers 8.52 carat diamond

Bobbie Oskarson, of Longmont, holds her 8.52-carat diamond she found at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. (Photo Courtesy of Crater of Diamonds State Park / Longmont Times-Call)

Fortune smiled upon a Longmont woman on Wednesday at Arkansas's Crater of Diamonds State Park when she unearthed an 8.52 carat diamond.

A press release from Arkansas State Parks said Bobbie Oskarson found a clear white, icicle-shaped diamond, the fifth largest found at the Murfreesboro, Ark., park since it was established at the state's diamond site in 1972.

"It was a very large stone," park interpreter Waymon Cox said. "Usually when we see that, we tend to think it's quartz. We looked at it closer and tested its hardness and found out pretty quick that it was a very large diamond."

Oskarson, who found the stone after looking for only 20 minutes, named it the "Esperanza Diamond" and told park officials she plans on keeping the gem, the news release.

She directed interview requests to the park, according to an Arkansas State Parks spokeswoman.

Cox said Oskarson had gone to a portion of the search area known as the "pig pen" because of its tendency to get muddy from rain and found the stone after pulling up a few scoops of dirt.

He said the park registered the diamond for Oskarson, adding that the value of a diamond is based more on how it's cut.

"Roughly one or two diamonds get found a day," he said. "On average they are usually a quarter of a carat. We get a few a year that are two or more. This is the third this year that's over two carats"

Johnny Harris, Sales Manager at Snyder Jewelers, said most diamonds in circulation are under a carat-and-a-half, but some large-sized diamonds have come out of the Crater of Diamonds park.

Advertisement

"Those don't just fall out of trees," Harris said. "Finding anything over five can be rare."

He said that pricing a diamond can be tricky because each color — and there are several — has its own designation. Jewelers also look at carat size, color, clarity and cut, and how rare a particular type of stone is also effects its value.

Cox said that any diamonds or other minerals park visitors find they are free to keep.

"People have found some really nice things over the last 40 plus years we've been a state park," he said.

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story